


Fragments - An Anthology

by Kaladin_x_happiness



Category: Original Work
Genre: A collection of myths, Deretima, Gen, Mythology - Freeform, as told by the inhabitants of Deretima, check individual chapters for content warnings, each chapter is a stand alone myth, regarding the fall of the Old Gods and the rise of the new
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-16 10:14:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29452131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaladin_x_happiness/pseuds/Kaladin_x_happiness
Summary: A collection of the tales of the gods of the world Deretima, as recorded by the priests of the Temple of Knowledge, and found within the personal library of the Archivist.or, a collection of original mythology
Relationships: Original Characters & Original Characters
Comments: 8
Kudos: 10





	1. The Fall of the Old Gods

**Author's Note:**

> I've had a novel brewing in my brain for 10 years and what it always lacked was a world. This is my attempt to start building that world.
> 
> TW for chapter 1: war, blood, offscreen murder, natural disasters. Nothing graphic but they are present.

Transcriptor's note: The Fall of the Old Gods is the most prevalent myth in our world, and the one that changes least from place to place. This particular version was recorded by my hand as told by an elder in the town of Aski, some three days travel from the Temple. ~Dimit, follower of the Archivist of the rank of Scribe

******

In the beginning there were the Old Gods. They were not of Deretima, but a family from a place long since forgotten, cast out for their wrongdoings to make their own way in the universe. They had no love for any but themselves, and they set about creating a place that they could enjoy. A place they could utterly control. They made this world of Deretima as a monument to their own worth, and hence it is beautiful.

The mother was the first to shape the world, and she created the ground. She formed rocks and mountains, sheer cliffs and sudden valleys, barren and silent as her own heart.

Her spouse created the seas, mysterious depths and breaking waves, endless expanses and tiny rivers to feed them. These reflected their own turbulent soul, always wishing to be admired from afar, but deadly to any who got close.

The brother delighted in all that was bright and warm. He created a pair of stars to light this world they had made, and he created every thing that feasted on the suns' light. The world became adorned with beautiful plants of every kind, and it was only accidentally that he created a few that would breed true.

The daughter, youngest of all, desired to prove her place to the family that often ignored her. She worked, and experimented, and studied, and tried again, until finally she achieved her goal. She brought life into the world. Birds flew above the earth, fish swam in the seas, lizards bathed in the sun and animals of all kinds feasted on the plants that had begun to breed true. Her family admired her handiwork and she basked in their praise.

It wasn't enough. It would never be enough.

The first animals gained her much admiration from her family, but each new one had to be better than the last. Soon she had hit the limit. She couldn't create any better animals than she already had. There was only one more thing she could try, one more creation that might establish her as the rightful ruler of the family. She created people, and gave them the potential to rise to godhood.

This did not have the reaction she had hoped.

Instead of praise, she was shunned by her family, who were terrified by her new creations. They exiled her from their celestial domain and sent her down to live among her people, and began to use their own creations to exterminate the life they could. Plants became poisonous. The oceans bred storms. The earth shook below the feet of those who walked there.

This wouldn't do, not for the daughter. She did not love her creations as the New Gods do. She loved them not for themselves, but for the status she had hoped they would bring her. She abandoned the people to their own fate and went to war against the other gods.

The planet became unlivable. Mountains rose and fell in a matter of minutes. Floods rushed through and carried away anyone unprepared. Edible plants withered and died, only leaving their poisonous cousins behind. The people lived on in any way they could. Some made deals with the souls of caves to keep them safe in the ground. Some sang to the sea, and the sea sang back, giving them shelter. Some took to the trees with a promise to never be apart again. And others? They simply held on.

The seas calmed. The land settled. The plants regrew. The war was over, and the daughter was alone.

She had never been alone before. In the Before, she'd had friends aplenty. Even when she became an outcast, her family had been only a thought away. Now they were all gone, lost to her own pride. And yet she would never learn.

She took once again to the lands of her family's making, living among the people that she'd abandoned to whatever fate they found themselves as she battled the other gods. They named her Crimson for the blood that stained her hands and hair. She walked among them from place to place, doing nothing but observing; occasionally raising to godhood a being she found likely to give her the honor she craved, more often smiting those who offended her. And then one day, many thousands of years ago, she vanished. Some say that she returned to the land from which she was cast out. Some say she moved on to create one anew. But some believe that she still walks among us, deep in the night when the blood in her hair is no longer visible. So be careful when you walk at night. Any stranger could be The Bloody One. She will twist your words until she gets what she wants, and if you do not die, the fate of eternity might be worse.


	2. The Keeper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The story of the Keeper, as told by the Mer civilizations in the Greater Reef

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warnings for major character death and illness

Archivist's note: this version of the myth of the Keeper was recorded by Chakalon, Scribe in the Temple in Noorashia in the Greater Reef, in the 298th year of the Karbian rule. It was lost in the earthquake that flattened the Temple last year but Betto was kind enough to fetch it for me. I have made a copy to return to the Temple when it is rebuilt. I'll have to check with Esh on the accuracy of this one. -K

****

Long ago, when the Barrier Reef was a young thing and the Queen of the Sea had not yet been born, a small kingdom existed on the outskirts of the reef. They were led by a Monarch, one whose hand was harsh and stifling on the people. But time passed, as it always has and always will, and soon enough the Monarch was laid low in the Abyss as was the custom in those times. Their son rose to the throne to take the title of King, and for a time not much changed. But the King had a good heart, and recognized that there was much he did not know. He had been isolated all his life and knew little of his kingdom beyond what the Monarch had deigned to teach him. And so it was, in the second year of his rule, he snuck out of the palace on the night of the Festival of Eternal Bonds. He wandered the streets unnoticed and unrecognized, for few had ever seen their king, unsure of what he searched for. He passed through the roads lit with red lanterns. He wove through dancers and singers. He marveled at the joy his people felt when he himself had never seen much point in the holiday. And then he had passed through the Festival, and found himself standing in front of the orphanage at the end of town. The lights were on and he felt compelled to knock. The door was opened by a man with kind eyes, and the King was ushered in.

The Keeper of the orphanage was a quiet man, a gentle man, one who kept his doors open to all who might need help, as the King learned by his own welcome. He marveled at the celebration the children were having, and the joy on their faces, and the way they welcomed him in and gave him a bowl despite there clearly not being quite enough for all. When he asked why, the Keeper simply replied that all lights were important in the darkness of the Deeps, and the King fell in love immediately.

He returned home that night, belly full of food and heart full of song, and knew that he needed to make a change.

In the morning, the King summoned the Keeper of the orphanage to the palace and asked him to be an advisor. He explained that he wanted others in his kingdom to always feel as happy and welcomed as he had felt the night before. And so it was that the Keeper of the orphanage became the Keeper of the kingdom.

Change came slowly at first, for beginning is never easy, but the Engineer blessed the hand of the Keeper as he tended his King's kingdom. All became equal under their reign, divisions between class and upbringing slowly eroding as the decades passed. Trade grew, technology progressed at an incredible rate, and the arts abounded. The kingdom grew in size for all were welcome, whatever their reasons for seeking it out. And through it all, the King and the Keeper fell in love. But they never married, for while the King loved the Keeper above all else within the sea or in the air above, the Keeper loved the kingdom first. 

The years passed, and as the kingdom grew in size and joy so also did the King and Keeper grow in age, and the time came when the King was laid low in the Abyss. Knowing his time was near, the Keeper took the shape of a simple crab, and wandered the streets of his kingdom unnoticed until he came to an orphanage on the edge of the city. The same orphanage, in fact, which he had tended so long ago. He watched the children that night, summoning one of them in the morning, a girl whose heart he had seen to be pure and caring. He taught her all he knew, and as she grew into a young woman worthy of the mantle she took up more and more of the duties of running the kingdom, easing the Keeper's weary bones and worried heart. He crowned her as the rightful Queen on the anniversary of his own appointment, on the day that we now know as The Day of the Passing Crown. And that night, heart content with the fate of his people, he faded into the depths of the sea never to be seen again. 

The kingdom has long been lost to the tides of time, but the Keeper lives on in the inhabitants of the Reef. Those who mark themselves as followers of the Way of the Crab keep their doors open to weary wanderers, the warming vents open, and a seat placed at the dinner table for any who may need it. Every light is important in the darkness of the Deep, after all.


End file.
